January ThemeThe Blank Page and How to Face It!January 10Art Challenge: The Color WheelJournal Prompt: "I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way . . . " - Georgia O-Keefe

It's time to get a little color on those blank pages now! This year, I decided I was going to use this Art Journal to Document my growth as an artist. I want to push myself each week to try new things and get out of my usual comfort zone. I grabbed my Pan Pastels, which I am embarrassed to say I have barely used, and decided to go for it!

When I thought about this quote and how much I love color, I imagined how sad the world would be without it! This is how I started my page . . . just a few pencil marks as guidelines . . .

I decided to draw a garden, first with only shades of black, white and grey; then slowly move into color. I started by adding my darker values and some definition.

I tried to play with the juxtaposition of black and white versus color as I added more details to the page. I used random shapes to "suggest" flowers and greenery and trees. The Pan Pastels were so fun and a very forgiving medium. I applied them with Sofft Tools - wonderful for spreading these creamy pastels across the pages.

Once I was satisfied with the pastels, I added some details with Prismacolor pencils. This helped with sharper lines and contour.

I gave the entire page a good spray of workable fixative to keep those pastels in place. It is not a permanent solution, but it will help.

I finished the piece, then decide I wanted to add the quote to the page. My pen wasn't working too well on top of the pastels, so I printed the quote onto a piece of tissue paper, cut it out and adhered it to the page with matte medium. I would have liked for it to have been more transparent, but hey, it's an art journal, right? That's one thing to keep in mind as you work . . . these pieces will not be hanging in galleries and won't go before art critics for review. This is YOUR art, created by YOU, and FOR YOU! Live with it and LOVE it!

As I was spreading my matte medium on the quote, I discovered that it did not disturb the pastels underneath...SWEET! I decided to lightly coat the page with the medium and a very soft brush. No smearing whatsoever! ***Please try this on a scrap piece of paper before applying it in your own journals - not all products have the same results!

I love how my pages turned out this week!!! Hmmm . . . I see a recurrent theme of a path, we shall see where that takes me this year!

You can learn how all of the Art to the 5th Artists have created their Journal Covers in our new class entitled, "Cover Story." You can find it HERE.

For more information on this week's challenge you can find us here:FlickrInstagram: #documentedlife #documentedlifeproject